Week 18

   In the beginning of the movie Pretty Woman, a man dressed in tie-dye walks down Hollywood Boulevard and enthusiastically starts asking everybody around him about their dreams. I think he's asking a damn good question, a question we don't really ask ourselves enough on a daily basis.  

   

   "Welcome to Hollywood! Everybody comes to Hollywood got's a dream. What's your dream? What's your dream? Eh mister, eh... what's your dream?" 

   

   As I've mentioned before in previous blog entries, I have all sorts of dreams. However, I have everything from pivotal aspirations of paramount importance to just fun and amusing little fantasies. I want to bust out some crazy dance moves in a flash mob. I want to wear a long, flowing dress to a quaint little farmer's market, carry an old fashion wicker basket and fill it up with the biggest bouquet of flowers I can possibly find, all while prancing along and singing 'Little Town' from Beauty and the Beast. I aspire to someday climb Half Dome, yet not via the typical route, rather straight up it's face. I dream about buying a one way ticket to Hawaii. I already made it quite clear that I fantasize about a bearded man in flannel, but I also daydream about making out with a handsome cowboy in a pile of hay! And speaking of Pretty Woman, I've always had the desire to dress up like Julia Roberts in that movie. And when I say I want to dress up like her, I'm not referring to her in her prostitute get-up (although I was close to it in that blue dress in Hood River). Remember when she wears that brown polka dot dress to the polo match? Yep, I want to do that! I want to wear that dress with little white gloves and go to the horse races. And I'd like to have my first Mint Juliep as well, it seems most appropriate at a horse race! Well, I can tick that fantasy off my list, because I just did that shit yesterday! 

     It's funny how checking those little wishes off your bucket list really gets you thinking about the bigger items on the list. When I stopped procrastinating and started acting on these little fantasies, it got my noggin in the right state of mind. And perhaps that state of mind was to stop thinking, and rather to start feeling.  Although I plan on counting backwards once I hit 35, I'm not actually getting any younger. The biggest item on my list, and perhaps most pivotal, is: I want to move to Hawaii and paint on the beach. Yep, it's time to make that a reality. It's really a no-brainer...literally, that decision comes straight from the heart. It would probably be more practical (and affordable) to move to Bend, but when have I ever been practical? I've decided that if I can find rap music in Bend, then I can find a bearded mountain man in Hawaii...or maybe even a cowboy and a pile of palm fronds. 

   I'm shooting for a mid-August departure...I just need to stop spending money on more dresses and start saving.  I'll get a one way ticket, stuff the remainder of my unworn dresses in a suitcase and see what happens. Who knows? I may be there for a month..three months, or maybe even a few years. All I know is that I'll always regret it if I don't go and try. And until that day comes, I'm going to start looking for flash mob postings on Craigslist and wicker baskets at garage sales. 

Unfortunately I didn't attract any Richard Gere look-a-likes in my dress, but I still had a super awesome time drinking Mint Julieps and eating $1 hot dogs with my ladies, Sally and Andrea